Bathurst by the years
It’s a mark of David Seldon’s ability that he never raced his own car in any of the 12 Bathurst enduros that he competed in. Sure, the occasional car may have come off the forecourt of the dealership he had a nancial interest in, but more often than not he was asked to drive. When the phone stopped ringing, Seldo stopped going to the Mountain.
1967
It wasn’t a big stretch from racing an improved production Volvo 122S at all the Sydney circuits to racing a standard 122S in that year’s Gallaher 500 but it certainly required a different approach as Seldon was to discover to his detriment.
“It ran the engine bearings from oil surge through left handers. The oil light was coming on but I was told to ignore it! (Team manager) Tony Lister said we would park it until the last lap and take it round for one more to be classi ed. Gerry Lister and I nished 11th in class completing 86 laps.”
1968
Seldon teamed up with good mate, Sydney Mini exponent Rick Radford for 1968. The pair had a good showing at the Surfers Paradise 4 Hour, nishing second in Class B in Radford’s Mini Cooper 998 but then being disquali ed due to non-original valves.
For Bathurst, Radford had entered his own 1275 Cooper S with Seldon, in what would be his third and last Bathurst start. The pair had problems with loose wheels in practice – remedied by taking the paint off from behind the wheel nuts. But there were no wheel issues when after 102 laps Radford hit the fence at Murray’s Corner and rolled – the same place where he went in during the ‘66 race in his Cooper S. (In 1967 Radford’s Cooper S hit the bank at Forrest’s Elbow.)
1970
After skipping 1969, Seldon got the call from Digby Cooke for a drive at the 1970 Great Race. Essentially it was payback for Cooke having destroyed Seldon’s Volvo at Surfers Paradise the year before. Their LC Torana GTR XU-1 was quick but succumbed to the valve train issue that afflicted most of the privateer Toranas that year. The head was replaced but over an hour was lost and they were classi ed 12th in class completing 108 laps.
1971
Gerry Lister and Seldon raced a Falcon XY Falcon GS 351 entered by John McNicol Ford of Cooma. The exploits of this car were told in AMC #109, but suffice to say that it didn’t trouble the leading class contenders in their Torana GTR XU-1s or Valiant E38 Chargers – serious brake issues and a small fuel tank saw to that. They competed 122 laps to nished 13th in class and 21st overall.
1972
For 1972 Seldon teamed up again with Gerry Lister in a new LJ Torana GTR XU-1. Tony Lister had sold British and Continental Cars to a public company who had purchased McLeod, Kelso and Lee a Newcastle Holden dealer who sponsored the Torana. Seldon believes that this was the one that got away, as he explains.
“Gerry started in the rain even though I liked the rain and was quick in the rain. He started 17th and when I took over we were 22nd. I had the u that weekend but they asked me to do a double stint and I was rooted. We were lying third or fourth and the pit signals were saying to go faster as we were catching Don Holland. I went up Mountain Straight and outbraked myself and rattled it along the fence at XL Bend. I lost concentration; it was totally my own fault. We completed 103 laps and I was supposed to run to the ag – another hour to go.”
1974
Seldon skipped another year and came back in 1974 with a class car, in the unlikely form of a Volkswagen Passat TS. By this time Seldon and Gerry Lister had set up Orange City Motors and were looking at an appropriate contender off the dealer forecourt that could take on Mount Panorama.
“The ‘sporty’ Passat TS coupe looked half a chance with its twin throat carb (and 63kW),”
recalled Seldon. “We had Peter Webster, who worked in the marketing department at Channel 8 Orange doing a lot of advertising for us. We got some offset from Peter, who had Formula Vee experience and he got the drive as a contra deal. The Passat was prepared at our workshop.
“I have to say that it was probably the worst race car I’ve ever driven. It wasn’t nice. Dunlop didn’t have any tyres for it. We had different sizes front to rear and different compounds and tread patterns. It rained and the wipers stopped working. It was a blessing when the carburettor butter y throttle spindle broke and it stopped. I was happy to see it parked.”
1975
Colin Wear was given the task of preparing three Morris Cooper Ss for the 1975 Hardie Ferodo 1000 and suggested Seldon should be one of the drivers. Seldon was paired with Gary Leggatt in the fastest of the three cars, all entered by Orange City Motors.
Unfortunately it was not a happy day, as Seldon remembers:
“Gary tangled with the DeBortloli Ford Escort RS2000 of Bruce Hodgson and hit the fence at Murray’s, breaking the steering rack. Gary took the rack out of Phil McDonnell’s Mini (that hadn’t quali ed) and lost three hours. I’d never driven the car before practice, Gary was annoyed with himself so he said, ‘you drive it.’ I did a lot of laps and hated every one of them. I was never a front-wheel-drive person and just didn’t like driving it. It was so twitchy and I spent the whole race ghting it. We did 83 laps and were not classi ed.”
1976
For 1976 Seldon looked at his dealer forecourt and came up with the Triumph Dolomite Sprint. This pommy performer had a potent 16 valve 2.0 litre engine but was not without its issues, as he re ects.
“They didn’t call then ‘dynomites’ for nothing! Col Wear prepared it with a Holley carburettor instead of twin Webers, for fuel consumption and cost reasons and we entered it. Bob Martin, a very handy steerer who was easy on the car, started the race but it did one lap before breaking a camshaft just after the Cutting.”
Seldon took the Dolomite to endurance races at Adelaide and Surfers Paradise, but it was a litany of gloom.
“At Adelaide we broke an engine in practice. Then we took the Dolly to Surfers. In the race Lyndon Arnel (Escort) tipped me off round the back into a aggies barrier, which was a railway sleeper structure, backwards and wrote it off. It broke the seat and I ended up in hospital. I still have a bad back to this day.”
1977
With a full race season in the Ron Hodgson Triumph Dolomite Sprint, including a class win at Oran Park’s Rothmans 500, Seldon was match t for Bathurst. But storm clouds were gathering. First the second Dolomite for international hotshots Andy Rouse and Tim Schenken didn’t eventuate. Kiwi single seater ace Graeme Lawrence was there to partner Seldon and the pair quali ed but were withdrawn on the morning of the race by an emotional Ron Hodgson.
“Hoddo was con dent they would do well with the Toranas (A9Xs entered for Bob Morris/ John Fitzpatrick and Johnny Rutherford/Janet Guthrie) but because they were all entered by Ron Hodgson Motors and there are some grey areas with the Dolomite, if we got disquali ed post scrutineering then it affects the whole team and all cars entered by the team would be disquali ed – which incidentally should have applied to Shell V Power Racing Team (at Bathurst 2019), but that is another story!”
The engine was the weak link with the Dolomite. Pistons homologated in the UK hadn’t been passed by CAMS. There was an impasse and post Bathurst Hodgson and major sponsor Leyland Australia closed down the race program, leaving Seldon out of a job.
1979
Gary Leggatt rang me the day before entries closed at Bathurst and asked me what was I driving at Bathurst? I said nothing, what about you? ‘Nothing. Why don’t we run a car?’ What? ‘Maybe a Gemini, they’re cheap and easy to run, it should win class A. I know there is one in Melbourne.’ So we put an entry in for an unknown car.”
Bob Williamson bought the car, an ex Mollison Motors car driven by John Harvey in the Victorian Gemini Series. The car was prepared in Leggatt’s garage and after some teething problems in testing at Oran Park and in practice at Bathurst (see Whaddayaknow in #113 for details) the duo did indeed win Class A after the Gough Brothers’ Gemini was disquali ed for having an illegal engine.
1980
Buoyed by their class success, Leggatt set about building up a new Gemini for the 1980 Bathurst 1000. George Shepheard was running the HDT Gemini rally team with a workshop full of white Gemini bodies from the factory. Leggatt acquired a TE four door shell and built it up.
“Gary was very canny and a great rulebook reader. He said we can build a Gemini ZZ that has an 1800 twin-cam. They changed class from 1600 to 2000, so the 1600 had no show anymore, but the twin-cam may have. So he built one up and ordered some fuel injection parts from Germany, but two weeks out it hadn’t arrived. Gary got onto Hedley McGee of speedway fame and he knocked up a basic constant ow system setup for us that we bolted on the Wednesday prior to Bathurst.
We did a couple of practice laps and it was hopeless. We had all sorts of problems.
“I went to the ‘cop shop’ and spoke to the sergeant. Is there somewhere where we can go, decent bit of road where we won’t be disturbed or kill someone? ‘I can’t give you permission to break the law!’ he said. But then he said: ‘We’ll be working the Orange to Bathurst Road, but if you go to Molong Rd about eight miles out there is a long stretch of road. As long as you are quick and behave yourself you won’t be disturbed.’ So we put it on the trailer and shot up there in the dark and tuned the engine by drilling holes in the injectors. A farmer came up splitting chips. So we gave him a carton of the sponsor’s product –
1981
WCinzano – to mollify him. He went away happy!”
Come race day things didn’t go well. The Gemini broke its fuel injector pump after 18 laps without Seldon doing a lap. ith Leggatt moving to an Alfa Romeo GTV, Seldon was picked up by George Shepheard whose new Gemini ZZ (with proper fuel injection), had been initially raced by Bob Morris. The Gemini competed in the Better Brakes 3.5 Litre Series and the Silastic 300 at Amaroo Park.
“In my first race I tangled with a Mazda RX3 and did the wall of death. The kickback from the steering broke my wrist. With Phil Ward at the Amaroo 300 we won the class and came eight outright.
“The month before the race the Faneco brothers (Country Dealer Team) came along and made George an offer he couldn’t refuse. George, to his credit, said; ‘I promised the drive to David and I’ll sell it on the proviso that David gets the drive.’ So I drove with Gary Rowe, who was driving when it was involved in the race-ending accident at McPhillamy Park. We had issues with the torque tube and were not classified.
1983
Seldon’s last Bathurst was with Queenslander Alf Grant in the ex-Dick Johnson XD Falcon.
“I got a phone call from Alf asking, do you want a drive? The car was in Sydney for some reason so I drove it at Oran Park for four or five laps. I said to Alf that was I wasn’t sure I could drive this as I’m not physically strong enough. There was no power steering and he wouldn’t change it, as it’s something else to go wrong.
Alf was a gym junkie. So I went to the gym and pumped iron every day! It was a good car because it was simple and quick.
“I was frightened of it as I knew I wasn’t physically strong enough to hold onto the Falcon if it got out of shape. So I was very tentative but still substantially quicker than Alf. I had an incident with Gricey in practice. I didn’t know he was there and broke a wheel. We started 26th and I got quicker as I became more comfortable. I was doing 2m22s most of the day and got down into the 18s at one stage and finished seventh. There were no issues with the car at all. We were credited with the fastest time down the straight – 275km/h, which stood for years before they put the Chase in. I sweated out six kilograms and drank a gallon and a half of Gatorade!”
The phone did ring in 1984. Rusty French was on the other line offering a drive, but he wanted $10,000, an amount Seldon didn’t have to tip into motor racing.